1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in protective shields for telephone handsets, and more particularly, to a readily usable and removable and disposable shield capable of sliding disposition over the handset of a telephone to isolate the user from microbes collecting on the mouthpiece or other portions of that telephone handset.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Public telephones are frequently located in many, if not most, commercial institutions and operate by mere insertion of coins or paper currency into the telephone to initiate a telephone call. The relatively low cost to operate and use a public telephone coupled with the wide availability of the phones, leads to a substantial population which uses these phones.
Many of the users of these public telephones have infectious diseases of one type or another and the microbes which cause the disease or result from the disease are often contagious and can be transmitted to another individual and particularly, another user of that telephone handset. These microbes are transferred to the telephone, frequently by inadvertent contact of the lips of the user with the mouthpiece of the handset or otherwise, even from the breath of the user. In addition, the microbes can be transferred to the handset through any moisture carried in the exhaled air and thereby allowed to collect on the mouthpiece of the handset.
Although the problem of disease transmittal through public telephone handsets is widespread, little or no action has been taken, particularly by the public telephone companies, to eliminate this problem. There have been several proposals to destroy the microbes which might collect on the telephone handset. One proposal resided in the use of radiation to be applied to the handset and particularly the mouthpiece of the public telephone. However, these means for destroying the microbes also present deleterious effects to the users of the public telephones. Moreover, they were expensive, cumbersome and not easily adaptable for use with public telephones.
The problem with microbe collection and contagious disease transmittal is not only limited to public telephones per se, but to private telephones as well, which are used by numerous parties. Here again, there has been little or no effort directed toward the elimination if not the reduction of this particular problem.
It would be desirable to provide a shield in the nature of an envelope or sleeve adapted to removably extend over the handset of a telephone and which also permitted voice transmission through the sleeve or envelope to thereby permit voice transmission but to preclude microbe transmission to the user, and which also could be made in disposable form.